The Cuban League was one of the earliest and longest lasting professional baseball leagues outside of the United States, operating in Cuba from 1878 to 1961. The schedule usually operated during the winter months, so the league was sometimes known as the "Cuban Winter League." It was always a small league, generally 3 to 5 teams, and was centered in Havana, though it sometimes included teams from outlying cities such as Matanzas or Santa Clara. The league became racially integrated in 1900, and during the first half of the 20th century the Cuban League was a premier venue for black and white players to meet. Many great black Northern American players competed in Cuba alongside native black and white Cuban stars such as José Méndez, Cristóbal Torriente, Adolfo Luque, and Martín Dihigo. After 1947, the Cuban League entered into an agreement with Major League Baseball and was used for player development. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, however, tensions rose with the new Communist government, and in March 1961 the government decreed the abolition of professional baseball.

The first game in what became known as the Cuban League took place in Havana on December 29, 1878. Esteban Bellán, the first Latin American to play professionally in the United States, was captain (playing manager) of Habana while the opposing Almendares was captained by Carlos Zaldo. (Almendares was a suburb just outside old Havana.) Habana won the first game 21-20. The only other team in the league was Matanzas. In that first season, only four games were scheduled for each team, with the season lasting through February. Habana won the first championship with a record of 4-0-1.[1]

Early baseball in Cuba, as in the United States, was an amateur sport first organized by gentlemen's athletic clubs. Games were played on Sundays and were typically preceded by a picnic and followed by a dance.[2] A unique feature of early Cuban baseball is that teams played with 10 players per side. The tenth player was a "right shortstop", playing halfway between the first and second bases.[3]

By the mid-1880s, the best-known players were becoming celebrities and baseball began to become professional, as players jumped from team to team and Americans were sometimes brought in as reinforcements. The gradual development of professionalism that took place in Cuba during the 1880s and 1890s echoed the development of professionalism in the United States two decades earlier in the National Association of Base Ball Players, which ultimately led to the formation of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. In Cuba, however, the clubs that wished to remain amateur broke off from the Cuban League.[4]

Baseball in Cuba became associated with Cuban identity and nationalism. González Echevarría notes, "Baseball was a sport played in defiance of Spanish authorities, who viewed this American invention as vaguely secessionist and dangerously violent because of the use of sticks. A ban was issued in 1869, just as the Ten Years' War was starting."[5] Several of the sponsors of early baseball teams were also supporters of the revolutionary cause. A number of ballplayers fought against Spain in the Cuban War of Independence (1895–98), and at least three lost their lives: Emilio Sabourín, Juan Manuel Pastoriza, and Ricardo Cabaleiro.[6]

During the 19th century the Cuban League remained a segregated, whites-only institution. However, black Cubans were developing their baseball skills playing for semi-professional and sugarmill teams. The Cuban War of Independence brought Cuban blacks and whites together in a common cause and created the pressures that ultimately brought integration.[7]

The other great legacy of 19th century Cuban League baseball was the enduring rivalry between Habana and Almendares. This rivalry began before the formation of the Cuban League and survived after its end, lasting for nearly a century. Growing up in Havana (and, indeed, in much of Cuba) meant choosing between Habana and Almendares.[8]

Highlights

On December 29, 1878 the Cuban League's first game took place in Havana; Habana beat Almendares 21-20.[9]

On December 21, 1879 an American professional team, the "Hop Bitters", visited Cuba and easily beat a Cuban team. The team's players comprised the Worcester team that had played in the minor league National Association in 1879 and would play in the major National League in 1880–1882. This tour began a long tradition of post-season exhibition series between major leaguers and Cuban teams.[10]

In 1881 the first Almendares Park opened. For several decades it served as the principal Havana home for Cuban League baseball.

On February 2, 1886, Carlos Maciá pitched a shutout for Almendares, the first in Cuban League history, beating Fe 16 to 0.[11]

In 1887 Habana won its sixth consecutive pennant. In the nine years since the founding of the Cuban League, Habana had so far been the only winner. (There had been two years when the league did not play; in a third year, disputes led to the termination of the season with no official winner.)[12]

In 1888 Fe became the first team other than Habana to win a championship. Antonio María García, known as El Inglés (the Englishman), wins the first of 4 batting championships, hitting .448 for Habana.[13]

In 1889 Wenceslao Gálvez writes the first history of baseball in Cuba (and one of the first for any country), El base-ball en Cuba.[14]

On May 17, 1890 the President of the league, Oscar Martínez Conill, was killed in a fire while serving in a volunteer fire-fighting brigade.[15]

In 1891, Alfred Lawson led two American teams on tours of Cuba. The first team to tour, in January and February, featured a mix of major and minor leaguers. It beat Matanzas, Progreso, and Almendares, but lost to Habana, Fe, and an all-star team known as the All-Cubans. The second team, the "All Americans", came in December and comprised major-league players including young stars like Bill Dahlen and John McGraw. This team easily beat the Cubans in five straight games with scores of 17-0, 14-0, 11-4, 14-3, and 10-1. For the second tour, Cuban player Antonio María García was lent to the All Americans and led all hitters in the series, prompting an offer from McGraw to sign with the Baltimore Orioles; García turned down the offer because he was paid more in Cuba.[16]

In 1894 Almendares finally won its first championship, led by the pitching of Juan Manuel Pastoriza.[17]

In 1895–96 and 1896–97, baseball was not played due to the Cuban War of Independence. In 1897 Emilio Sabourín, who played for Habana in its inaugural season and went on to become its manager, died in a Spanish prison after being captured during the war. In 1897–98 the Spanish government allowed baseball to be played even though the revolution continued in the countryside; the season was ended early, however, when the Spanish–American War broke out.[18]

In February 1899, the Cuban League returned under American occupation.[19]

Golden Age: 1900–1933

The year 1900 brought fundamental change to the Cuban League. In the aftermath of the Cuban War of Independence and the Spanish–American War, pressures mounted for racial integration of the league. Led by promoters and entrepreneurs such as Abel Linares and Tinti Molina, the league integrated in 1900 with the admission of an all-black club, San Francisco, and the admission of non-white players to some of the other clubs. When San Francisco easily took the pennant, the other clubs quickly began bidding for the top black players. These changes also marked the recognition of the league's status as a fully professional institution.[20]

These changes did not occur without opposition and controversy. At least one team owner sold his interest rather than invest in an integrated enterprise. Several of the players from the upper classes moved to amateur leagues, which continued to compete behind walls of racial segregation.[21]

The next major change came in 1907 when the Fe team began loading up with black American stars, such as Rube Foster, Home Run Johnson, Pete Hill, and Bill Monroe. Soon the other teams were also bringing in the Negro League stars, culminating in the 1912 Habana, which easily took the title with a team featuring Hall-of-FamersJoe Williams, John Henry Lloyd, and Pete Hill, as well as Home Run Johnson and Cuban stars Julián Castillo, Carlos Morán, and Luis Padrón. According to González Echevarría, "These teams were clearly of major-league quality, combining the cream of Negro baseball with the best Cuba had to offer, and a few white major leaguers to boot." Only Almendares was able to remain competitive for a while without American reinforcements, relying on its strong core of Cuban-born pitchers including Hall-of-Famer José Méndez, Eustaquio Pedroso, and José Muñoz.[22]

As the Cuban League strengthened, it began doing much better in its now regular competitions against major league teams. In 1908 Méndez blanked the Cincinnati Reds for 25 consecutive innings, including a 1-hit, 9-strikeout shutout. In 1910 the Cuban teams beat the World Series champion Philadelphia Athletics 6 games to 4, leading the embarrassed Commissioner to issue a ban on post-season exhibition games by the reigning World Series champion.

Highlights

In 1902 Habana swept the competition, ending the season with a record of 17-0. Pitcher Carlos (Bebé) Royer pitched every game, also ending with a record of 17-0.

In 1903 Habana won the title over Fe in the bottom of the 9th inning of the last game of a 5-game playoff series. Habana's Carlos Royer went 18-10.

In 1908, the major leagueCincinnati Reds played Cuban League teams in Cuba in the American Series. Cincinnati beat Habana 5–1, but fell 1–5–1 to Almendares, as José Méndez pitched 25 shutout innings.[23] Cuban League teams would play against major league teams in the American Series until 1953.[24]

In 1909 Eustaquio Pedroso pitched an 11-inning no-hitter to beat the American League pennant-winning Detroit Tigers. The Cuban teams beat the Tigers (who were without the services of Ty Cobb) 8 games to 4.

In 1918 a new Havana stadium, the second Almendares Park, opened a few blocks away from the old one, which was last used in 1916.

In 1926–27 a rival league, "Triangular", was formed which raided many of the best players.

In 1927–28 Jud Wilson won the batting title with a .424 average, while also leading the league in triples with 7. Wilson and Martín Dihigo led Habana to a runaway title.

On January 1, 1929 Cool Papa Bell brought in the new year by hitting 3 inside-the-park home runs in one game. That season Alejandro Oms set the all-time single-season batting record by hitting .432.

In October 1930 marked the opening of a new ballpark, La Tropical Stadium, which replaced the second Almendares Park.

In 1932–33, Habana and Almendares ended the season in a tie. With an unstable political situation, plans for a playoff were scuttled and no winner was declared. For the second season in a row, no American players were brought in, reflecting Cuba's poor economic situation.

In the aftermath of the Mexican League's efforts in 1945 to sign major league players, U.S. organized baseball engaged in an effort to control the flow of players in Cuba and the other Caribbean leagues. This effort culminated in a 1947 agreement between the Cuban League and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues to bring top minor league and new major league players to Cuba for winter league play. The next season a second league—the Players' Federation—was formed, consisting largely of players who were outlawed by organized baseball for their play in the Mexican League. This new league, however, proved not to be viable and lasted only one season.

Highlights

In 1935–36 Martín Dihigo dominated the league as perhaps no other player in history; he led the league in pitching (11-2) as well as in most of the hitting categories: average (.358), runs (42), hits (63), triples (8), and RBI (38), while leading Santa Clara to the pennant.

In 1936–37 Ray Brown had a magnificent season, going 21-4 for a Santa Clara team that was 16-28 with its other pitchers. In a 3-game playoff, Brown beat Martín Dihigo of Marianao 6 to 1 in the first game, but Silvio García won the second game for Santa Clara. In the concluding game Dihigo came back with two days' rest to beat the Santa Clara Leopards 7 to 3.

In 1938–39 Josh Gibson shattered the old home run record of 7 (set by Mule Suttles) by slugging 11 in 163 at-bats. (Home runs had always been scarce in Cuban baseball due to the expansive size of the playing fields. For example, the dimensions of La Tropical Stadium are listed as 398 feet down the right field line, 498 feet down the left field line, and 505 feet to straight center field.)

In 1941–42 Ramón Bragaña set a record for most consecutive scoreless innings with 39-2/3, while leading Almendares to a pennant in a tight race against Habana.

In 1945–46 Dick Sisler led the league with 9 home runs, including 3 homers in one game. Minnie Miñoso won the Rookie of the Year award.

1946–47 was the most famous pennant race in Cuban League history. During the last month Almendares began making up a 6-game deficit to Habana. On February 23, 1947 Habana had a 1½ game lead over Almendares with a 3-game series remaining between the rivals—Almendares would need to win all 3 to win. In the first game Max Lanier of Almendares won a 4 to 2 decision over Habana. The next day, Agapito Mayor of Almendares beat Fred Martin of Habana 2 to 1 when Andrés Fleitas tripled to knock in the winning run in the seventh inning. The following day Almendares manager Dolf Luque decided to use Max Lanier on 1 day's rest, and Lanier pitched a complete-game 9 to 2 victory to seal the pennant.

As relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated, American players stayed at home during the 1960–61 season. Pedro Ramos led Cienfuegos to the Cuban League's final pennant. Luis Tiant, Jr. went 10-8 to win the Rookie of the Year award. One month after the end of the season, professional baseball was abolished, to be replaced by the amateur Cuban national baseball system.